Ann Morgan Guilbert

Ann Morgan Guilbert Quick Links

Writer-director Holofcener cleverly keeps the emotions gurgling right under the surface of this engaging interpersonal comedy. It's more about smiles than laughing out loud, but the superior cast members get terrific characters to play with.

Kate and Alex (Keener and Platt) are socially active New Yorkers, supporting charities and trying to help their feisty teen daughter (Steele) understand what's important. But Kate's beginning to feel guilty about their work; they buy furniture from families with recently deceased relatives and resell it at a profit. This is taken to the extreme as they wait for their aging neighbour (Guilbert) to die so they can annex her apartment, and Kate and Alex struggle with how to interact with her very different granddaughters (Hall and Peet).

Kate and her husband Alex own a trendy furniture store on Fifth Avenue; the products they buy come from estate sales. This is just the start of one of the many problems Kate is developing with her way of life. Materialism seems to have become a big part of her life and it also appears her way of life has rubbed off on her teenage daughter. Trying to balance a work and homelife with her husband is also taking a toll - not to mention their old next door neighbour whose flat they want to develop.